


déraciné

by orphan_account



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, To An Extent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-23 20:45:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14941092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “I know,” Keith says. “I missed you too. I miss you all the fucking time.”





	1. Chapter 1

 

“We're going home,” says Keith, and Lance thinks with tears drying on his cheeks, _oh, cool. Huh._

 

_Finally_ , he thinks.

 

“How are we gonna get there?” he asks, instead.

 

“We have our lions,” Keith reminds him, a small smile on his lips, his hand on Shiro's shoulder. “We'll manage.”

 

Lance feels something shift, like a planet rotating on its axis, like coming home – there's something between him and Keith, still, _still_ , and no matter what they do, they always come back together, no matter what. Lance looks at Allura and he thinks _wow_ , but he looks at Keith and he thinks _home_.

 

–

 

The means of transport doesn't prove so much of a problem as the whole navigation thing – the castle's means of viewing maps was far more advanced than the lion's means of doing the same thing, and even though Pidge had managed to find a ways of backing up the castle's mapping system the lions couldn't _actually_ display all of it – the maps could only display the actual quadrants they were in – which meant they had to travel in a more planet-to-planet matter instead of heading directly to Earth, like they'd wanted. They don't stop at every planet they encounter, of course, but Pidge had said they probably wanted to stop every four-or-so quadrants

 

Lance _hates_ it. It blows. It's going to be slow, he's already _bored_ , and he's itching to just be home already – he's been dreaming about it since about two months into this whole Saving The Universe thing. He misses his mom. He wonders how he's gonna explain the whole vanishing-for-like-a-year-or-more thing to her, but he'd asked Pidge's dad to relay a message to her, so it's more like vanishing-for-eight-months. Not so bad.  
  
“How long have we actually been out here?” he asks as they're flying the lions through some part of space that has a lot of junk floating around. A _lot_ of space is like that, Lance has realised, but this is _real_ junk – he think he saw a refrigerator.   
  
“What do you mean?” Allura asks him. Her, Coran and Shiro are in the Black Lion with Keith – it has the most space, so it had made sense for the non-pilots to stay in there. Lance had smirked at the way Keith had rolled his eyes at the suggestion.   
  
Krolia – Keith's _mom_ , geez – had chosen to reconvene with The Blade of Marmora instead of following them to Earth. _She'd love to see it again, one day_ , she'd told Keith in a watery hug. _But not yet. Work to be done._

  
“Like, in space,” Lance snaps out of his thoughts about Keith's Cool-Yet-Intimidating-Alien-Mom and flaps his hand in the air even though no one can see him. “In general. How long have we been away from Earth?”  
  
“Oh,” Allura says. “I believe it's been about a year?” That's what Lance had guessed, that's what it _felt_ like, but he doesn't understand space-time – it works differently from Earth, and it's not like he can count the sunrises out here.  
  
“Around there, yeah,” Pidge cuts in. “It's hard to keep track of these things out here though.”  
  
“Yeah, no kidding,” Lance sighs. “It feels like it's been for- _ever_.”

 

“We should probably land soon,” Pidge says. “Next quadrant over. I need to re-check the maps again, make sure we're going in the right direction.”   
  
“That's fine,” Allura tells them. “Everyone need to rest, any-ways.” There's a hum of agreement from all the lions over the speakers. She's right – they've been flying for the better part of the day.  
  
“Next planet,” Keith says. “And we'll stop.”

 

–

 

The planet they end up landing on is populated by what Lance can only think to describe as bipedal catfish. They're grey in colour with beady eyes set far apart on their heads, and their whiskers droop down past their stomachs. They all seem to be wearing what looks like vests with golden swirls covering the edges – a lot of them are red in colour, but Lance notices a variety of different colours, too – the designs are all the same, though. He wonders if it's some kind of hierarchy system.   
  
They speak in a series of clicks that Allura and Coran are _somehow_ , of _course_ , fluent in, so. They have a place to stay for the night, or however long they need. Shiro looks _tired_ , Lance thinks to himself – more so than usual, even, heavy lines under his eyes, hair white. He thinks they might have to stay here for more than a day.

 

The planet is – mostly water, honestly, and it makes sense because these creatures are aquatic – even though Coran explains that they don't actually die out of water for some reason – Lance doesn't really understand how it works. There are wooden paths built over the water that they can walk, which Lance also doesn't understand, because he's watching these creatures swim and they're so much faster in water than they are on land, but. They're talking catfish. He'll let it slide.   
  
There are parts of the planet that _aren't_ water, and instead are long, sprawling plains of green – there's an abundant lack of trees for some reason, Lance notices, but there is a _lot_ of grass – the creatures have built large wooden cabins in rows stretching down as far as he can see – he guesses they house multiple creatures, because they're about the height of six of them stacked on top of each-other.   
  
The plains don't open out into more water – it seems like the planet is in reverse with the water in the middle and the grass surrounding the edge. It's warm, too, but not unbearably so – it reminds Lance of Winter at home, just after the rainy season ends. The air is dry, but there's a breeze probably coming off of the water - it's nice. He likes it.  
  
“We're to be staying in these cabins,” Coran turns to tell them all, and Lance snaps out of his daze to listen. “We get one each, so don't lose your keys!” he tells them, dramatically dropping a pair of keys into each paladin's hand.

 

“Well,” Allura claps her hands together, a small smile on her face – it looks sad, and Lance thinks with everything that's happened – _well_. He can't say he's surprised. “We'll reconvene in the morning and see how everyone's feeling.”   
  
“Okay,” the group murmurs all at once, and Lance realises just how tired he is – his bones ache with it, and he's dying to lie down. The others must be feeling it, too – he looks around and sees that everyone else also looks dead on their feet.  
  
“See you tomorrow,” he half-sings to nobody in particular, as he goes to unlock the cabin nearest to him – Keith is in the one to his left, he notices. Hunk is across from him, and he waves at him sleepily before he vanishes into his own cabin. Lance unlocks his own cabin and opens the door, and wow the bed is _huge_ , but before he can catapult himself into it he notices that Keith is still fumbling to his left, and he tries to not make a point of _watching_ the shit-show but – he is.

 

“I can't get it unlocked,” Keith admits after two minutes of Lance openly watching Keith struggle with the door. “Can you _help_?” he snaps. “Instead of gaping at me?”  
  
“Sure, whatever,” Lance says, too tired to argue at the current moment. He walks over to where Keith is standing and tries to wiggle the key in the lock, but it's just as if it's stuck – it won't turn to open, and he can't pull it out either. He guesses it's jammed, somehow.  
  
“Maybe they gave you the wrong key?” he suggests. “This shit is like, not opening.”  
  
“I noticed,” Keith sighs. “Can I try yours?”  
  
“Why?” Lance asks. “It won't work.”  
  
“Maybe the keys work on all the doors, I don't know,” Keith trails off, huffing angrily. “Jesus. That doesn't make any sense. I'm so fucking tired.” Keith rubs his eyes, and Lance stifles a laugh at this but it isn't cruel – and Keith picks up on that, somehow, because he throws a small smile in Lance's direction.  
  
“You can just ask for a new one, you know,” Lance says to him, but Keith shakes his head.  
  
“I don't want to bother Coran or Allura, they were tired as shit,” he sighs. “And I don't speak catfish.”  
  
“They won't _mind_ -” Lance tries to insist, “they probably aren't even asleep yet,” but the eye-roll he receives tells him Keith isn't budging.   
  
“Okay then.” Lance sighs out. “Where are you gonna sleep, then? Out here?”  
  
“I could,” Keith murmurs, and Lance slaps his forehead in disbelief. “What! It's warm enough out!”  
  
“I know, dude, this place's weather is like winter at home. I've slept in this kinda shit. Like, you could, theoretically, but.” Lance is thinking about the fact that the bed in his cabin could like, definitely fit two people, and he doesn't want to suggest it because there's still this weird – _thing_ between them, that he can't name – it's like they orbit each-other, carefully, tentatively – the last thing he wants to do is knock them off course after Keith's only just come _back_.  
  
“Do you wanna go for a walk,” he suggests instead, and it comes out less like a question and more like a statement.   
  
“Sure,” Keith says, and Lance isn't sure why he'd suggested it – he's dead tired, and so is Keith, so he doesn't know why he _accepted_ , but whatever.

 

“Cool,” Lance kicks his feet awkwardly, sticks his hands in the pocket of his jacket – they'd shed their armour and left it in their lions out of laziness, mostly. He doesn't need his jacket, it's too warm, but whatever.  
  
They walk in silence, away from the shacks and down towards the edge of the planet. The night sky sprawls over them, vast and distant and _blue_ , deep like the ocean. It's speckled  
  
There really _is_ nothing but grass out here – Lance hasn't even seen like, a bush or something. It's so empty, but it's peaceful – the grass grows longer the further out they walk, and they turn back around after it's curling over their knees and Keith is having to almost hop to move.  
  
Keith reaches his hand out, silent as a prayer, and Lance grabs it like a lifeline. They sit down on the grass, and they're still far out – Lance can't see the cabins from here.

 

“What is _this_ ,” he breathes out shakily, his eyes on their linked hands instead of on Keith's face, because he feels like he's coming apart. “Like what are we – doing?”

 

“I don't _know_ ,” Keith hisses, but his tone softens as he squeezes Lance's hand. “I don't know, I just. I hated being away from everyone, and like I knew I'd miss Shiro because he's like – my brother, but I didn't think I'd miss _you_ , and I just,” Keith sighs, exhales through his nose. “I'm tired of dancing around it.”

 

“You're so insensitive,” Lance mumbles, but he doesn't really mean it, and he's smiling softly as he traces circles in the grass with his free hand, “didn't think you'd miss me, huh?”

 

“I didn't think I would,” Keith repeats. “But I did. Happy?”

 

“I miss home,” Lance says instead, and Keith arches his eyebrows in confusion even though Lance isn't looking at him. “I miss it in the same way I miss you when you're gone.” he continues on, and Keith says _oh_.

 

“Why are you even admitting there's _something_ here, anyway,” Lance asks. “You seemed content enough to dance around it before.”

 

“This last while has put shit into perspective, I guess,” Keith admits. “I had a lot of time to think about it.”  
  
“Are you okay?” Lance asks, finally looking up to meet Keith's eyes that have been on him this entire time. “Like, I know your thing is everything-is-fine-go-away-Lance, but like. I'm asking.” Keith shrugs, weakly.  
  


“I have a mom, now,” he starts. “So that's something – good. It's just – the whole thing with Shiro was – it was _scary_ , Lance. We almost lost him. _I_ almost lost him.”  
  
“But you didn't,” Lance says, squeezing Keith's hand. “We didn't.”  
  
“I know,” Keith bites his lip and Lance aches, “I know. It's just. I don't want it to happen to us, I don't want to _lose_ you and you think I thought something I didn't, or-” Lance leans forward and presses his mouth to Keith's softly, fondly, because he knows what he's saying and his heart thrums like _I know, I know, me either. Me too._

 

“Huh,” Keith says, dumbstruck, and Lance's face splits into a grin. “You caught me off guard.”  
  
“Kinda the point,” Lance flaps his hand. “I missed you.”  
  
“I know,” Keith says. “I missed you too. I miss you all the fucking time.”  
  
“You don't have to miss me, I'm here,” Lance says. “Stay.”

 

–

 

Lance invites Keith to share the bed with him after they almost fall asleep staring at the stars – Keith sits over Lance and they hold each-other's faces, like they can't believe they're both here and alive and breathing, _together_ -  
  
“Why do we always come back to each-other,” Lance wonders out loud as Keith moves himself off of sitting over Lance to lie next to him.

 

“Take your jacket off,” Keith tells him instead of replying, “it's fucking roasting in here.” Lance doesn't even waggle his eyebrows at Keith as he sheds his jacket, which is a testament to how fucking tired he is.

 

“I don't know,” Keith replies, after they're lying silently in the dark, Keith's head on Lance's shoulder, his hair tickling his nose. “We're connected.”  
  
“Cheesy,” Lance murmurs, pressing his mouth to Keith's forehead. “But, you're not wrong. I stole your lion.”  
  
“You did,” Keith agrees, sleepily.

 

“Planets orbit each-other,” Lance continues. “I guess it's the same for people.”

  
“That doesn't make sense,” Keith slurs, heavy with tiredness.

 

“Yeah,” Lance says, and he wraps his arms round Keith and thinks _but I'm glad it's you._

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't mean to write a second thing for this but it's just some 500ish words of fluff b/c i'm gay

Keith wakes up with Lance glued to his back, his legs set between Keith's – Keith instinctively tries to wriggle out of Lance's grasp, because Lance is holding onto him  _ tight _ – Lance holds onto him like he's going to vanish in the night and never come back, and, well. Maybe once.

 

“Ugh,” Lance groans as Keith wiggles his way out of his arms, and then rolls over to face him with his head propped up on his arm. “Ugh,” Lance repeats.  
  
“Ugh,” Keith parrots at him, a smile on his lips. “Good morning.”  
  
“Oh,” Lance's eyes squint open, and he looks at Keith like he can't believe he's real. “You stayed.”  
  
“My cabin's lock is broken, you know,” Keith says. “I couldn't have left if I wanted.”  
  
“You could've slept outside,” Lance retorts, snorting as he wipes his eyes with the back of his left hand. “Did you want to leave?”  
  
“Lance,” Keith says, but it's more like a whisper, “no, I didn't. Would I be here in the first place if I didn't want to be?”  
  
“Dunno,” Lance replies. “You're nothing if not stubborn.”

 

“Exactly,” Keith rolls his eyes. “So I'm not gonna be put in a situation I don't want to be in.”  
  
“Unless you're like, literally thrown into it, with like a cannon or something,” Lance mumbles, still half-asleep. Keith smiles.  
  
“Sure,” he says. “We should probably get up.”

 

“I dunno,” Lance says. “What time is it?” Keith rolls out of bed at the question, and pulls open the shutters covering the small window in the back of the room – they're made out of bamboo, he realises absent-mindedly. The sun is barely visible – dawn has just broken, and the sky is a dark blue down to the horizon, which is a soft strip of gold. Keith can't see the water from here – the view out the back is of the grass surrounding the outer part of the planet.  
  
“It's dawn,” Keith tells Lance. “Barely.”  
  
“We don't have to get up, then,” Lance groans as he stretches in a way that isn't unlike a cat. “C'mere.” 

 

“We gotta talk about this,” Keith says, but he finds himself padding back over to the bed anyway, to sit on the edge next to Lance. He had slept in just his shirt and boxers - this planet was too hot for him to do anything else.

 

“Then let's talk about it,” Lance says, propping his head up to look at Keith. “What's on your mind? What's up? What's the issue?” Keith rolls his eyes at Lance's dramatics, but it's fond – he missed this, too, he supposed.

 

“I mean,” Keith sighs out, hard through his nose. “I meant what I said last night. I  _ did _ miss you. I  _ am _ tired of dancing around this. I know you said I was content enough before to dance around it, but it's not – like that any-more, and I want to go home  _ with _ you.”

 

“You can  _ have _ this Keith, you just have to  _ stay _ ,” Lance tells him, reaching his hand out to grip Keith's own. 

 

“I  _ can't _ promise that I can,” Keith mumbles. “I don't know if the Blades will need me again, or...” he trails off, shrugging weakly.  
  
“Promise anyway,” Lance tells him. “'Cause we're going home, and you can stay home with me just for a _ whiiiile _ ,” Lance sings the song out, and he's grinning. “You can meet my parents!”  
  
“Ugh,” Keith swats Lance's face. “Do I want to?”  
  
“Uh, yeah,” Lance says, mock-offended. “They made me, so obviously, they're awesome. Also I owe my mom an apology for like, vanishing for a year. Maybe if I'm like 'oh, but mom _ look _ , I got a cute boyfriend in space,' she'll forgive me. Or something.”

 

Is that what you want?” Keith asks him, softly.  
  
“You to meet my mom? I mean, sure,” Lance talks as much with his hands as he does with his mouth – he's so _ animated _ .

 

“No, dumbass,” Keith swats at him again. “Well yeah. But the boyfriend thing.”  
  
“Oh. Yeah.” Lance says dumbly. “Unless you don't wanna?”  
  
“I just spent a night sleeping in your bed,” Keith reminds him. “Am I giving you the idea I don't want to?” Lance shrugs.  
  
“I guess not,” he grins, and Keith knows now, knows him – he loves him. Through this war, through a thousand more, across millions of galaxies and stars and _ planets  _ – he'll find him, he'll stay for him, he won't be wrenched from him – not now, not again.

 

(Lance loves him, too.)

 

 

 


End file.
